Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Ghana 2008:Traders seized the opportunity

Sadly, the quality T-shirts imported into the country which were in high demand have run out of supply. Many of the vendors say when they rushed to the Accra central depots to take more items; the wholesalers told them the T-shirts were out of supply.

The few traders who had the T-shirts and other paraphernalia say they were holding them in the hope that the Black Stars would win their opening match, so they could sell at high prices. From all indications the tournament has brought huge business opportunities for street vendors and other new entrants into the business of selling national paraphernalia.

One trader, Kojo Poku Afriyie pleaded with the government to bid for either the FIFA under 17 or under 20 World Cup tournaments as soon as possible so that traders can get more to sell. The 50 year budget released last year by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, said Ghana had plans to bid for the 2042, which some of these traders might not live to witnesses or be strong enough to sell national paraphernalia.

Speaking on January 15 at the opening ceremony of the second Accra Biennial Football Expo, the President of CAF, Mr. Issah Hayatou congratulated the Ghana government , and the people of Ghana for the financial investment they put in to make the CAF tournament a reality.

Hayatou, however, lamented the failure of Africa to exploit the business opportunities football offers. Dr Bella Bello Bitugu, Co-Recipient of 2006 World Cup FIFA Fair Play Award on behalf of World Cup 2006 Fans in an article "Harnessing Football for Peace and Development", points out that the tenets and the road to peace and development are so varied and diverse that the options open are in millions and no one can point to an easy or quick fix strategy. Some of these strategies take economic, political, cultural, social etc perspectives. To this effect some organisations and individuals have taken the sports perspectives as an effective and cost saving medium of and for Development, Growth and Peace.

These potentials of football, according to Bitugu are however underutilised and "if we come to Ghana and West Africa in general, one realises the opportunity we have could slip through our fingers if we are not prepared to adopt this effective and cost efficient strategy. We want to publicise this strategy and want many to follow us and come on board individually and collectively."

2007 and 2008 have been particularly good years for street traders. It started with the celebration of the Golden Jubilee in 2007 when street vendors sold thousands of the Golden Jubilee paraphernalia and made huge profits.

The Ghana 2008 Africa Cup of Nations which kicked off yesterday has opened another avenue for the petty traders to make huge sales, thanks to a new wave of nationalism that has gripped Ghanaians.

At press time interviews Public Agenda's Ghana 2008 Monitoring Team conducted with the traders revealed that many of them had sold Ghana paraphernalia running into millions of cedis and were still asking for more. One lady, Adjoa Boateng from Konongo told our team that on a particular day she sold items worth Gh¢500.

"We do not want CAN 2008 to be a three week event and after the 10th of February, all is over. Rather we want to see to it that something remains with us and for us and that a sustainable process of development and peace is kick started. We want to use this platform to establish a campaign, as has been happening elsewhere, not only during CAN but well after and we want it to be an established project on the continent", he empahsised.

In his view, sports can provide development opportunities through the sports industry as well as the organisation of large sporting events and provide life skills essential for a productive life in society; promote positive values which have a quick but lasting impact on young people; enables increasing access for women and girls to sports and helps them build self confidence and stronger integration which also help the youth to overcome gender prejudice and stereotypes.

It can also helps to reach diverse levels of the population and provide positive role models delivering prevention messages about HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases. Sport is also ideal to raise awareness about the need to preserve the environment and offers partnerships between developed and underdeveloped nations to work towards achieving the MDGs. It has and can offer many positive benefits of a social, psychological and physiological nature to those with disabilities and through its popularity and integration potential, be used to fight racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

There are several initiatives using football for development or football as a medium to tackle diverse developmental and social issues like Play Soccer Ghana, Football for Hope, Football Against Racism in Europe, Street Soccer and many others.

"This is why football stars are seen as idols and role models to follow and emulate especially by the youth and children. We see the examples of former and currents stars like Weah, Abedi Pele, Kalusha, Anthony Boafo, Drogba, Kanu, Okocha, Anthony Yeboah, Etoo, Essien etc etc who in diverse ways use their positions as role models in diverse areas of development and peace."

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